I had this collection picked out as my Christmas romance read a full year in advance. Then, I promptly didn’t read it, because that is how 2023 went. (Eventually my 2024 reviews will start without a lament about 2023, but this one isn’t it.) I love Tessa Dare books, particularly when I’m looking for something sweet and lighthearted. When checking her catalogue for a new to me book this past year I spotted this anthology from 2018 and put it on my list, zero questions asked.
Meet Me in Mayfair by Tessa Dare
Dare plays with some of the plot points of Meet Me in St. Louis, but this is its own story. Louisa Ward needs a Christmas miracle. She and her family have until new years to find a way to pay off a debt to the new Duke of Thorndale or they will have to leave the only home they’ve ever known. Her plan is to catch a suitor at her friend’s ball – only to be dragooned into taking her dance card so she can elope with the man she loves. Unfortunately, the card is chock full of unmarriageable men since Fiona had studiously been trying to not attract any other men’s attentions. The waltz is none other than Fiona’s distant cousin James, the Duke of Thorndale. Through a series of events and mostly truths Louisa and James spend the night getting to know each other around Mayfair, but can their newly blooming attraction and affection mean anything with all that hangs in the balance?
I appreciated that Louisa is the one to change her mind, to grasp that while his decisions may be a bit shortsighted, James is making choices for the benefit of the people he is responsible for, forgetting that he is perhaps also responsible for the people who live and work in the properties he is preparing to sell. I also love that James isn’t afraid to re-evaluate with new information, while also not pretending to be someone he isn’t, or pretending that he doesn’t have the fears and worries he does. A really sweet story with steam primarily at the end.
The Duke of Christmas Present by Sarah MacLean
What if Belle had returned to Ebenezer Scrooge and given him the chance to reflect on his past and make a different choice before marrying another instead of the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future finding him later in life? That’s what Sarah MacLean is playing with in The Duke of Christmas Present. Jacqueline and Eben had been in love, but the pressures of saving his estates after his drunken father’s death made Eben pull away, always wanting to prove he was good enough. Jack pulls away eventually leaving him to travel with her aunt. The Duke of Christmas Present moves between the, ahem, present and the past letting the reader in on what happened 12 years ago and seeing if Eben and Jack can figure it out this time. It was a little more angsty than you might traditionally find in a holiday read (in that way it reminded me of my other second chance holiday read For Never & Always) but it worked for me, especially the grovel.
Heiress Alone by Sophie Jordan
If The Duke of Christmas Present was a look at The Christmas Carol if Scrooge had gotten his life sorted before becoming a big old, well, Scrooge than Heiress Alone is Home Alone but if the family member forgotten was an English heiress in the Scottish Highlands with brigands on the loose breaking into houses and estates. A snowstorm is ensured to block the pass meaning that Annis Bannister won’t be able to be retrieved by her apparently easily distractable family and she is trapped for the next three months in the Highlands. Her first night after being left the neighboring Duke (whom her family embarrassed themselves in front of rather spectacularly) arrives to rescue the servants from the marauding thieves thinking that they’re alone. Alas, he also has an heiress to look after. About half of the story is their journey back to his estate, and then the second half focuses on their time together as they deal with their emotions. I liked this one a lot more than I was expecting to, especially how the physical attraction is balanced with their emotional inner lives.
Christmas in Central Park by Joanna Shupe
A retelling of Christmas in Connecticut should absolutely have been my favorite of the bunch since the 1945 movie is one of my all-time favorites. From Goodreads: “Mrs. Rose Walker pens a popular advice/recipe column. No one knows Rose can’t even boil water. When her boss, Duke Havemeyer, insists she host a Christmas party, Rose must find a husband, an empty mansion, and a cook. But Rose fears her plan is failing—especially when Duke’s attentions make her want to step under the mistletoe with him.” See? Should’ve been like catnip for me. But… i struggled to sink into this one. I’m sure plenty of others loved it.
faintingviolet 